Can playing games lead to “visits from authorities”? Hidden concerns behind retro game handheld consoles

Imagine if you were an avid gamer, playing games at home one day while showing off your game and game console collection through a live stream. Suddenly, you heard a knock on the door. A few minutes later, six police officers searched your home, took away your game console collection, and seized your phone because most of the games you usually played were pirated.

Actually, this is not a fictional story but something that happened to an Italian video blogger, "Once Were Nerd," in April this year. Recently, he posted a video telling all his supporters about his experiences in the past few months. He also said that he might have to shut down his channel and pay a fine of 15,000 euros (about 125,109 Chinese yuan).

Why is this? Is it illegal to play games in Italy? Of course not.

The key to this matter is that Once Were Nerd is a video blogger whose main content focuses on "retro game handhelds." Friends who have followed our previous related content may remember that so - called "retro game handhelds" are special game devices that only have hardware but no exclusive software ecosystem. They often come with open - source game console emulator software pre - installed, allowing players to play many classic games from old consoles on a single handheld.

It should be noted that the act of developing "game console emulators" and even selling such products may not be illegal. Whether it is the so - called "hardware emulation" based on FPGA or the common software emulators, in essence, they are just using today's code to construct an operating environment "similar" to those of past game consoles. In most cases, emulator developers may not need to know the internal data of those game console companies.

Of course, this also means that the "emulation" effect of emulators is often not perfect. However, precisely because of this, they can be interpreted as an exploration of the "technical black box" rather than a simple copy or reverse - engineering of the internal code of relevant enterprises.

But both the sellers of "retro game handhelds" and their player groups clearly know that these devices need matching game software to truly function. The key question is, where do these old games come from?

Here, we must point out that there are actually many "retro game handheld manufacturers" in the market. They are not all small - scale manufacturers. Some have now become quite influential and can even present their products at formal exhibitions. Obviously, everyone knows that the games run on these "retro game handhelds" may involve piracy issues. So why can these manufacturers still openly promote their products?

The reason is actually very simple. If you look at the official websites of relevant manufacturers, you will find that almost all manufacturers of "retro game handhelds" do not specifically promote the software part. They neither elaborate on whether their emulators are self - developed or use open - source solutions, nor do they tell players whether the products come with pre - installed games. Instead, they only talk about how delicate the appearance of their products is, how suitable the screen specifications are for these old games, and how carefully the processors, joysticks, and buttons have been tuned.

Moreover, for those ancient game consoles, is there a legal way for players to run their games on emulators or "retro game handhelds"? Actually, there is.

For example, for collectors who own dozens or even hundreds of different game consoles and have collected thousands or even tens of thousands of old game cartridges and discs. They have spent real money on buying genuine games. To avoid wearing out the cartridges or discs, they choose not to play the "original" games but instead dump (extract) the games and play them on a computer using an emulator. This is completely legal.

For such users, they already own the legal game bodies and do not spread pirated files. They only use emulators and game ROMs for good - faith purposes.

However, the problem is that although it is legal to develop game console emulators, produce hardware with built - in emulators, and even "produce" game ROM files in some cases, once these links are connected, or more straightforwardly, once it comes to ordinary players, the situation often changes.

For example, although "retro game handheld" manufacturers definitely won't publicly promote the source of their games, if you pay attention to relevant merchants on e - commerce platforms, you will find that when selling, merchants often offer a large number of game ROM files either pre - installed in the machine or on an additional memory card as a "package." Because merchants know very well that consumers won't buy a game console without games.

What about most consumers of "retro game handhelds"? Obviously, they don't have a large collection of genuine old - fashioned games. In other words, even if they want to legally obtain game ROMs that can run on emulators, they have no means to do so.

In fact, for the entire "retro game handheld" industry, upstream software developers and hardware manufacturers have skillfully avoided infringement liability, but shifted the relevant risks to dealers and users.

Of course, in normal circumstances, law enforcement agencies won't visit a player's home just because they "play pirated games." However, for bloggers like the one mentioned above, when they talk about "retro game handhelds" on the Internet, objectively promoting the products and the piracy industry chain, they naturally can't avoid trouble.

This article is from the WeChat official account "3eLife" (ID: IT - 3eLife). The author is 3e Jun. It is published by 36Kr with permission.